Hi,

Cat On The Moon is a style blog written by me, Cat, about the process of curating a capsule wardrobe and different ways to achieve a simple and thoughtful lifestyle. I try to keep in mind that simplicity is a journey and a life well lived is the goal.

A simple lifestyle blog for a thoughtful life

Aug 29

Aug 29 Learning To Live With What You Have

It's incredibly funny to me that I've gone and started a "style" blog while also working towards minimalism and simplicity in my life. When I first registered for this domain, I had not yet come across the concept.

My initial plan was to post really cute outfits and then start making tons of money - because that's how blogs work, right? I did a bunch of research on SEO and keywords and social media marketing. I figured out that if I chose a buzzword—hello, capsule wardrobes!—I could get a lot of you to click through to my wimpy blog and start reading my content, which would otherwise be all alone in my small corner of the internet.

And I still get traffic to my blog for capsule wardrobes despite never having completed one... sorry readers. I'm sort of a fraud.

(Side note: starting this blog and learning all of those things has now allowed me to get two new jobs—one in Fort Lauderdale and now another in DC since I moved—so I am incredibly thankful for all I've learned through creating this blog.)

But as months went by and I never really tackled those lofty dreams of fashion blog mega millions, I began to realize that fast fashion and money did not align with my values.

And I realized what was holding me back.

So I took to minimalism.

And I took to the concept of a simple wardrobe and lifestyle.

What's been holding me back is that I'm not sure it was realistic to expect myself to dump all of my clothes and magically replenish the lost resources. It wasn't realistic to pour all of my money and resources into a lifestyle that drains rather than replenishes me.

It was a money issue and a fear issue.

It was also a values issue. And rightfully so.

So while I did go through all of the steps I wrote about on my start here page for capsule wardrobes, including the planning and buying of clothes, I ended up returning almost all of it.

And instead have just sat with the sparse wardrobe I've been whittled down to. And this inaction of sorts has taught me something really valuable:

How to live with what I already have.

I am now the most picky I have ever been about what is allowed to stay in my closet. I'll buy a few things online to give it a shot, but then end up returning a good 90% of it.

And instead of getting frustrated by that, I feel grateful.

Grateful that I now have the personal awareness to say no to some things. Before I would say yes to everything and be left with many regrets and now a lot of credit card debt.

I'm still recovering from those many mistakes.

I'm still paying massive amounts of money towards my debt every month and lately I choose to spend my extra money on food rather than more clothes—since I moved to DC I realized that food is expensive here.

Now I've learned some new things.

Maybe a capsule wardrobe is not the best first step.

Maybe a capsule wardrobe can be a fun challenge further down the line once you get good at saying no.

I've learned how to build a simple wardrobe inspired by the style around me.

I've learned how to buy new pieces for a new city.

I've learned not to put too much pressure on myself.

Slowly adding to your wardrobe can be better than massive overhauls.

Quickly getting rid of clothing is still better than slowly doing so, however.

Learning to live with what you have is the best thing you can do to get to what's next.

So, if you came to my page to learn about capsule wardrobes...

I'm sorry if you now feel mislead. Feel free to still attempt it. Step one is still the best thing I ever did for my closet—and one of the best things I did for my life since just maybe this was a keystone habit that spiraled into a myriad of positive changes I've made in my life.

But now we can look forward to what the future of our closets looks like.

We can look forward to our life.

Let's get past the buzzwords.

Let's be grateful for the change they inspired in ourselves.

Let's accept what didn't work for us.

And let's focus on simplicity and slowness, so we can leave space for a thoughtful life.

I'm happy to be back. And I'm happy to start sharing again. And I'm so happy you're here to read along with me.